I honestly didn't understand a thing
sry
No *I*'m sorry... It's always hard because you don't know how much people know about the subject.
When you have a geometric sequence, you go from a number to the following one using a multiplication by a common term, right?
Like
2 > 6 > 18 > 54 > 162 > ... (x 3)
3 > -6 > 12 > -24 > 48 > ... (x -2)
256 > 64 > 16 > 4 > ... (x 1/4)
Let's name the term q... (q=3, -2 and 0.25 in the above examples)
So when you want to go from a number to the following one, you multiply by q: 54 is 18x3, -24 is 12x-2, etc.
Now imagine that you want to jump directly 3 numbers: you'll multiply by q x q x q
For example, in the first sequence, you go from 2 to 54 and 6 to 162 by multiplying them by 3x3x3 = 27
Still following me this time?
Now, your problem:
You compare the sum of the n-3 first terms, so
the 1st + the 2nd + the 3rd + ... + the (n-3)th
To the sum of the n-3 last terms, so
the 4th + the 5th + the 6th + ... + the
th
Those sums have the same number of terms (n-3)
To change 1th into 4th, or the 2nd into 5th, or (n-3)th into
th, we need to multiply by q x q x q, OK?
So
the 4th + the 5th + the 6th + ... + the
th
= the 1st x q x q x q + the 2nd x q x q x q + the 3rd x q x q x q + ... + the (n-3)th x q x q x q
= (the 1st + the 2nd + the 3rd + ... + the (n-3)th) x q x q x q
So q x q x q = 8, according to your problem.
That means q=2
Of course, there's shorter ways to solve it (I detailed so that you can understand how it works, hopefully).
One of it is knowing the formula that gives you the sum of p terms of a geometric sequence of reason q, whose first term is uo :
S = uo x (1-q^n) / (1-q)
So the first sum is = 1th term in the sequence x (1-q^(n-3)) / (1-q)
The second sum is = 4th term in the sequence x (1-q^(n-3)) / (1-q)
And 4th term = 1st term x q x q x q
So again, you get q x q x q = 8, thus q = 2.
More understandable?
Edit: corrected a type in parens